How Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and other business chiefs hold ruthlessly effective meetings

Why does Jeff Bezos keep a chair empty in the boardroom? Where does Richard Branson hold his meetings? And who’s always late for appointments?

Here are some of Quartz’s favorite tips for holding meetings from the some of the world’s top business leaders:

Throw out the least necessary person in the room

Steve Jobs reportedly threw people out of meetings if he didn’t feel they added any value. The Jobsian way of running meetings, much like Apple’s core design principle, is to keep everything simple. Only absolutely essential people should be present at a meeting.

Don’t use chairs

Stanford management professor, Bob Sutton, points to research that claims meetings held without chairs are not only just as effective as sit-down meetings, they’re significantly shorter. Sutton also says that by remaining standing, you minimise the amount of time wasted holding meetings with, let’s call them, “fools.”

If you’re Richard Branson you have the luxury of being able to ship your staff out to a private Caribbean island, as the music-to-airlines entrepreneur suggests in his “Top 6 tips to screw business meetings as usual.” But if you’re not Branson, try to think of somewhere less exotic. Branson’s point is that getting out of the boardroom is a good way to encourage a bit of creativity.

Ban PowerPoint presentations

Another bit of advice from Branson: Kill the slide deck. At least, don’t use slides filled with text that merely reflect what you’re saying. If you need a reminder, put it on a screen in front of you. Instead, keep people’s attention with photos or short videos.

Shortly after Larry Page took over as Google CEO, he got it in his head that the search engine needed to go back to its roots and run more like a startup. This was especially true of meetings. The Google golden rule of meetings is that a decision should never wait for a meeting. If a meeting is vital to the decision-making process, the meeting must happen immediately.

You can get away with being late… if you’re the boss

Pretty much every standard guide to holding effective meetings will tell you to “start on time and end on time.” But Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer is apparently always late for meetings with her executives. She’ll often keep people waiting for over an hour, according to Business Insider.

Send an advance copy

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer doesn’t like boardroom surprises. Ballmer prefers team members to send through material ahead of meetings so he’s fully prepared when he walks in and can spend less time listening and more asking questions.

If you have an international meeting, don’t wear your jacket on the plane